Serbia's president has issued a historic apology for the 1995 Srebrenica
massacre of 8,000 Muslims, asking the people of the city for forgiveness in
a television interview.

President Tomislav Nikolic personally apologised for the first time on behalf of Serbia for the attacks on the city, but stopped short of meeting some demands to describe the atrocity as genocide.

"I am down on my knees because of it. Here, I am down on my knees. And I am asking for a pardon for Serbia for the crime that was committed in Srebrenica. I apologise for the crimes committed by any individual on behalf of our state and our people," he said.

Asked by the interviewer to agree that all the evidence showed that the city had suffered a genocide, he said that charge remained to be proven.

The interview will be broadcast on May 7.

Mr Nikolic added that much of the events in the wars during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia had characteristics of genocide.

That angered representatives of victims who demanded a full recognition of the charge. Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica association, which groups families of the victims, said she was "not convinced".

"We do not need someone to kneel and ask for forgiveness. We want to hear the Serbian president and Serbia say the word genocide," she said.

Srebrenica was a United Nations designated "safe area" in 1995, but it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces who sorted out its starving population for execution, leading thousands of men and boys away to be killed.

Representatives of the Bosnia-Herzegovina leadership travelled to Belgrade this week to meet Mr Nikolic, who rose through the ranks of Serbian nationalists. The former undertaker came to power last year, but has since helped promote the country's bid for membership of the EU by talking of reconciliation.

"As a guarantee of the Dayton Treaty, Serbia wishes Bosnia peace, stability and the best possible development in terms of economy and all other areas," he said. "Serbia wants to help Bosnia on this path. Serbia is always there for Bosnia and it will provide assistance if need be, but we would like to see the two entities resolve their problems and cooperate on their own."

Zeljko Komsic, the Croat member of Bosnia's presidency who did not travel to Belgrade, said he was "positively surprised" by the apology, adding it would improve ties between the two countries.

Until five years ago Mr Nikolic was a top official of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party, which has denied that Serb forces committed crimes during the Balkans wars of the 1990s.

Its leader Vojislav Seselj is currently on trial for war crimes before The Hague-based UN International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Charles Crawford, a former British ambassador to Belgrade, said the language used by Mr Nikolic represented a drastic change from his previous questioning of the scope of the atrocity.

Coming a week after Serbia sealed a deal with Kosovo to end a stand-off over who governs ethnic Serbs in Kosovo, the statement will boost Serbia's ties with the EU as it bids to join the bloc.

"He's gone a long way. Certainly for someone from his nationalist background to have struck this tone is impressive," Mr Crawford said.

Ratko Mladic, the wartime Bosnian Serb army chief is on trial at The Hague on various charges, including genocide, over the Srebrenica massacre, the worst European atrocity since the Second World War.

Serbia convicted four of its paramilitary soldiers of war crimes in 2007 after video footage emerged that showed them executing six Bosnian Muslims in a forest near the city in the week leading up to the massacre.

Both the ICTY and the United Nations' highest court, the International Court of Justice, have found that the Srebrenica massacre was a genocide.